Ross McCormack - the truth

There's been much talk about Ross McCormack recently. He came to the club with a huge reputation. We fought off Newcastle and Norwich to sign him and it was seen as a real coup. Many thought he was the final piece of the jigsaw and the man to score the goals to take us up.

Well 3 goals in 22 games later and dropped from the squad today, Steve Bruce spoke on the radio after the match. He was straight and clear. McCormack is unfit for first team football. He has a bad professional attitude and has been disciplined for missing training. Unless he turns this around he will not play for Bruce.

It's what I've been saying for the last few weeks. McCormack is not the answer. He's blatantly unfit and when he's been on the pitch then he's provided nothing. People say he hasn't had the service; the truth is his movement has been so poor that he won't get the service. He's gone downhill bigtime. It's attitude, and he's had problems before.

As to playing instead of Gabby, Gabby IS putting the effort in, which is why Bruce has been picking him. He had a good game today. Bruce won't take excuses from players; that's what we need.

I agree with you about Bruce and not standing for these shirkers. It seems that the rot that had taken root at the club continued untracked under Di Matteo. I do understand why Bruce picks Gabby. His attitude is now right but he has offered very, very little for the team. One reasonable performance in 10 will not do it. He is a supposed striker who hasn't scored for, is it 38 games? Gabby is not good enough. Nowhere near good enough. In fact, he has long ago burned all bridges with the club. If he runs about, that doesn't mean he should be in the team.

Not 100% certain the Rhodes thing is dead, in spite of Bruce implying that it is. Apparently we offered £6m, exactly what we received from Boro for Gestede. To us Rhodes would be considerably more valuable than Gestede. So why only £6m? And why offer that if we knew that Boro would turn it down, which was pretty obvious? Why bother at all?

Wouldn't be surprised if Bruce goes back in before the window ends with a better offer. Wonder if Bruce wants him but the Villa recruitment team are saying he's only worth £6m, so Bruce hangs off until the window is nearer closing and it's now or never. Only snag with that is that Rhodes may go somewhere else.

Hmm, but if it was true that Bruce has to raise his own funds during this window, then the £6M bid would indeed be the final bid and the chase is therefore dead. Bruce has also said that it is dead and we should assume that it is.

Back to McCormack, this guy was previously a model pro and a club captain at Fulham. No reputation of being a trouble-maker either. So is there more to this? If not, what turns a model pro into a trouble-maker? Whatever, now that Dr Xia has been tweeting about him, calling for him to 'become a real man', there is no way back. Seems we HAVE TO try to ship him out now and HAVE TO bring in another forward.

McCormack - I assume that he has a contract at VP, tell me how you ship him out ? assuming that he wishes to leave who would be prepared to shell out so we could recoup some of the money paid for him ?

Boro wanted Gestede & paid £6 mill for him - would it not have been better to do a swop with Villa paying £I mill - if no deal then at least we would have had a forward who can score goals when service is provided - anything would be better than that headless chicken Flabby flapping all over the pitch but doing nought else !

It is incredible to think that we didn't do a deal involving Gestede are we really that naïve these days that we get bent over on every deal?

I hope Bruce can fix it, freezing players out only hurts us in the end. A fired up McCormack and RHM is better for Villa than freezing them out.

Of course I want players who want to die for the shirt, but I also want our best players on the pitch. Tell RHM, OK go out there and show the world what you have for 4 months and you might get a better offer than Rangers, rather than OK if you don't want to play for us sit it out.

Word is that Ayew is going to Swansea, as Bruce doesn't rate him. So that's another who is apparently not good enough for the Championship, yet is good enough for the Premier League as well as Ghana. Plus it leaves us even thinner still. Meanwhile Hepburn-Murphy remains frozen out and Flabby leads the line. Thank God the Bristol City game has been postponed.

Is it me or are we in the same laughable mess as we were last year? WTF is going on?